I've been on a refashion roller coaster this week as I've been prepping our wardrobes for fall; Long sleeves, leggings, and chai lattes are coming, people! Something that makes me deeply happy is wearing partially or wholly homemade clothes. I feel like when I reuse or refashion pieces of old clothes I'm lowering my carbon footprint, diminishing my spending, and exercising my creative mind. At the thrift store I collect clothes with designs, colors, and materials that appeal to me or are in fashion, then bring them home to cut up and re-purpose in a way that looks good and works for me. I also have a strange addiction to collecting sewing notions like lace, ribbon, and buttons for fancying up old or cheap pieces in my wardrobe. Matching the parts together and finding ways to reuse old materials is fascinating and such good fun.

This week I raided our giveaway pile of clothes looking for an old button up shirt which I turned into an adaptation of this Sweet Crochet and Sew Dress from the Purl Bee. The yarn was remnants from a bonnet for my daughter and is a soft cotton. Then I took some scissors to an old, stained, lace pajama dress and used the hem to lengthen a new sweatshirt/sweater so that it would cover my (growing) bump without being utterly scandalous. I love how a bit of lace can make anything look a bit more fabulous, don't you? After that it was onto one of my husband's old T-shirts. I turned a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirt into a dress for my little miss. It fits her with room to grow and it gave me a wonderful, low-risk opportunity to practice sewing knits (tricky, tricky). If you'd like to make one for a little person in your life, you can find the tutorial here on Instructables. Really, who doesn't have an old t-shirt laying around that could use a new life?

Between all these lovely sewing projects, I had a few dates with my crochet hook and some Caron Simply Soft. I can't tell you just yet what those flower squares will become, but I think they'll make something whimsical and lovely for fall. I always seem to need a few flowers in my life when the clouds come to stay and the cold creeps in each winter.

What are some of your favorite ways to refashion old clothes? Do you cut up your old tshirts for household rags or weave them into rugs? I'd love to hear your suggestions and stories so please drop me a line. If you leave me a link to your own refashion blog post I'll certainly pop over and have a look!